sed several
years of exile in England, at Goswell, Wanstead, and latterly at
Hartwell, near Aylesbury, in Buckinghamshire. When he entered Paris as
king, in May, 1814, he was in his fifty-ninth year, inordinately bulky
and unwieldy--a king _pour rire_. "C'est ce gros goutteux," explained an
_ouvrier_ to a bystander, who had asked, "Which is the king?" Fifteen
mutton cutlets, "sautees au jus," for breakfast; fifteen mutton cutlets
served with a "sauce a la champagne," for dinner; to say nothing of
strawberries, and sweet apple-puffs between meals, made digestion and
locomotion difficult. It was no wonder that he was a martyr to the gout.
But he cared for nature and for books as well as for eating. His
_Lettres d'Artwell_ (Paris, 1830), which profess to be selections from
his correspondence with a friend, give a pleasant picture of the _roi en
exil_. His wife, Louise de Savoie, died November, 1810, and in the
following April he writes (_Lettres_, pp. 70, 71), "Mars a maintenu le
bien d'un hiver fort doux; point encore de goutte; _a brebis tondue,
Dieu measure le vent_. Helas! je l'eprouve bien qu'elle est tondue cette
pauvre brebis!... je me promene dans le jardin, je vois mes rosiers qui
poussent bien; a qui offrirai-je les roses?... Eh bien! je ne voudrais
pas que cette goutte d'absinthe cessat, car pour cela il faudrait
l'oublier. L'oublier! Ah Dieu! Je suis comme les enfans d'Israel qui
disaient: _Super flumina Babylonis ... Sion._ Mais ajoutons tout de
suite: _Si oblitus fuero hit, Jerusalem, oblivioni detur dextera mea_."
In another letter, June 8, 1811, he criticizes some translations of
Horace, and laments that the good Pere Sanadon has confined himself to
the _Opera Expurgata_. Not, he adds, that he would not have excluded one
or two odes, "mais on a impitoyablement sabre des choses delicieuses"
(_Lettres_, p. 98).

To his wit, Chateaubriand testifies (_The Congress, etc._, 1838, i.
262). At the council, when affairs of state were being discussed, the
king "would say in his clear shrill voice, 'I am going to make you
laugh, M. de Chateaubriand.' The other ministers fumed with impatience,
but Chateaubriand laughed, not as a courtier, but as a human being."]

[328] {567}[Louvel, who assassinated the Due de Berri, and who was
executed June 7, 1820, was supposed to have been an agent of the
_carbonari_. La Fayette, Constant, Lafitte, and others were also
suspected of being connected with secret societies.--_The Cour